JUNK
by K.T.Roxley
Summary: Hannah Finlayson Struggles to cope after she watched James take a bullet on her mission, but she has to pull together when her brothers gf goes missing. Will the CHERUBs get to Molly in time or will she be the fifth agent to be Killed? PLEASE R&R :  xx
1. Chapter 1 JUNK

Chapter 1

Everyone supposed it was just one of those freak accidents, but to James it had been planned. He didn't believe what Meryl told him; that he had been shot by accident. He touched the scar on his arm where the bullet had hit as he walked across campus. He started to hurry when he realised it was ten past eight, and he was supposed to of been at the mission control building fifteen minutes ago.

He pushed open the door to the mission control building, smiling at the sign stating that the security system was – yet again – not working. James walked down the corridor leading to John's office and people smiled as they recognized his face. He hadn't been in here for a while.

He tentatively knocked on the office door. John Jones didn't like tardiness; and before working at CHERUB he had worked at MI5, he didn't take punishing agents who were late, lightly.

"Ahhh James!" John said, as he walked in and pulled up a spare office chair and joined the circle of 5 agents already studying mission briefings. "How nice of you to join us. Grab a mission briefing and have a look through. Next time try not to be late please."

_*****CLASSIFIED*** ***MISSION BRIEFING FOR WILL **__**FINLAYSON**__**, **__**KYLE BLUEMAN**__**, GABRIELLE O'BRIEN, JAYSON PALOMA & **__**JAMES ADAMS**__***** **_

_**THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG. **__**ANY **__**ATEMPT TO REMOVE FROM THIS BUILDING WILL SET OFF AN ALRM. DO **__**NOT **__**PHOTOCOPY OR TAKE NOTES.**_

_**BACKGROUND**_

_ILLEGAL IMPORTATION & SMUGGLING_

_When people hear the word smuggling they think of pirates and the slave trade that took place years ago. This is not the case. Smuggling and illegal importation of drugs, weapons, animals etc. still takes place today. Terrorist groups illegally import weapons and bombs. Drug dealers illegally import drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Orphaned girls are smuggling across the English Channel from countries in Europe - this sort of smuggling is known as human trafficking. _

_THE ORIGINAL MI5 MISSION_

_The original MI5 mission focused on Massam Earth. The aim of the mission was to watch the terrorist group after their attack in the London area in June 2003. Two agents were located into the blackthorn estate where senior gang member Sandy Clarkson works and lives. In 2004 MI5 made links between Sandy Clarkson and a man named George Averson. When more information showing that Averson was importing illegal goods into the country came through, MI5 moved more agents into the area to watch his movements. Since then more agents have been located there. _

_Thomas and Susie Carter worked for MI5 for numerous years. There death in late 2009 was the result of an ongoing battle between the government and terrorist groups. They worked for 7 years on the estate infiltrating Massam Earth. Other agents on the estate were infiltrating Massam Earth and George Averson. They worked to uncover the links between George Averson and the group. It is not clear why the Carters died but it was thought that they were killed by members of Massam Earth. An inquiry into the murder has led MI5 to believe that George Averson may have suspected that they were working for the police and therefore made the decision to kill them. After a post-mortem it was clear that the bodies had been poisoned. Many people in connection with George Averson and Massam Earth were arrested and taken into questioning but no leads were found. No one has replaced their position yet and new information has been slow coming in. This has led MI5 into making the decision to bring in five CHERUB agents. _

_GEORGE AVERSON _

_George Averson lives in a four bed roomed house on The Blackthorn common estate. He has five kids; Joshua 13, Lucy 14, Tyler 15, Callum 17 and Catherine 19 (Who no longer lives at home. Her exact where-about is unknown). His wife is Lisa Averson whose step father works in a leading role at Massam Earth. George originally worked for the British military as an instructor of weapons, but was sacked for consuming class A drugs. George Averson works importing and selling illegal weapons to terrorist groups. His organisation has spread across the country since it first started. Sandy Clarkson is thought to be Averson's right hand man and is often sighted around his home. This has led to the SIS forces into thinking that he may be controlling his operations from his house. His children do not know that he imports illegal weapons and still thinks that he works for British military. _

_THE CHERUB MISSION _

_CHERUB's job is to infiltrate the Averson's house hold and Massam Earth. The agents will make friends with their assigned child and place bugs around the Averson's' family home. The CHERUB agent's jobs have been made harder by the lack of information about both of these organisations. MI5 operative Mark Lucy will work alongside the agents as he has already integrated into the Averson's household. He poses as a cook and over the past two months has planted bugs around the house. This has given enough information for the CHERUB ethics committee to pass this mission. The overall aim of the mission is to infiltrate the Averson family, and, in the end Massam Earth to collect enough evidence to hopefully put some members of this terrorist group in prison. _

_PRECAUTIONS_

_When entering the Averson's household or any other building with associates of George Averson agents must always have protective clothing/armour on and be carrying a weapon for self defence. _

_NOTE: AGENTS ARE REMINDED OF THEIR RIGHT TO WITHDRAW AND REFUSE TO TAKE PART IN THIS MISSION AT ANY TIME__. __This mission has been classified GRADE 1 RISK due to the amount of weapons in the Averson's household. This mission is likely to last two months or less. Its primary goal is to gather information about the organisations. The danger to the agents should be minimal although precautions have been made to ensure this. _

"So, what do you think?" John proposed the question openly to all the agents.

"Well, I think it sounds banging!" Kyle joked, sending the agents into fits of giggles.

"Kyle stop mucking about. If you find it so funny I can always offer your position to someone else." He said. "Now anyone with serious answers?"

"Sounds alright to me," said Will who was a couple of years younger than James.

"Mmm, Yeah. I'm up for it," said his friend Jayson.

"Well as the only girl on this mission, wherever we're staying I bagsy the biggest room," said Gabrielle.

"That's not really relevant right now," John said trying to keep some order.

"Yeah but It is lady's first," she said.

"And men just before," Kyle replied cheekily.

"Well if none of you are going to be serious about this mission, I might as well go find five other agents." John said. This made the agents immediately be quiet as none of them wanted to be kicked off the mission. "Okay, now that we've got that clear, we need to discuss this in detail," john said in his usual brusque tone. "I take it that you all understand this is a Grade 1 mission meaning high risk." All the agents nodded. "And the Ethics committee just wanted me to make it crystal clear to you that you have the right to withdraw at any time."

"Are we gonna get any more information?" Jayson said, "Like background stuff?"

"Yes, I was just coming onto that." John answered as he reached into the top drawer of his desk and brought out 5 packs of Information on everything in the mission. "You're to read these thoroughly, and I will let you take them to your rooms as we have only 3 days before we leave and you need to be able to remember most of this information off by heart."

James took his pack and started flicking through it. "I'm never going to remember all this," he moaned. "It could take weeks!"

"James you could easily do it, you're like the best agent at CHERUB," Will commented.

"Nah mate, that's your sister," he said.

"Oh Will," John said, "Zara said to tell me that your sisters been in trouble, and could you go and have a word with her."

"A word about what?" Will asked.

"Her behaviour, apparently she's listening to no one else at the moment." John replied. "And you may all leave, but remember. Do not show your information packs to anyone."

"Yes," they all chorused, as they walked out of the office.

"Can't wait to finally get off campus!" James laughed.

"Yea, sounds like a good mission. Not too much hard work, but still interesting." Gabrielle said.

The group made their way through the unusually cold September weather and back into the main building. But while the group were all laughing and joking Will was quiet. All he could think about was the mission and his sister. He really didn't need to have to be worrying about while he was preparing for a mission – it just made him feel even more nervous. He could never understand how people like James could just breeze through missions, like they were just a walk in the park.

He quickly dropped the information pack off in his room - making sure to lock the door – and headed down to Hannah's bedroom.

When he got to the door he went to open it, expecting it find it open. But he was surprised when it was locked. He Knocked and shouted her name a few times, but she obviously wasn't in there.

"She's in Jo parker's office," said a voice from behind him. Will spun around to find Hannah's Friend Annabelle standing behind him.

"Oh thanks," he said. He was about to walk away but then he stopped. "How comes?" he asked.

"Dunno. But I asked my science teacher and she said that she'd got an email from Jo saying that she was with her." Annabelle said.

"I'll head down there now," Will replied. _God_, he thought as he waited for the lift, _what has she done now?_

oOo

_2 hours earlier._

Hannah sat in Zara Asker's office, listening to her droning on about her behaviour. It was irresponsible, stupid and did she know how dangerous it was? But she didn't care. They couldn't kick her out. She was only brought to CHERUB in the first place because her parents were MI5 operatives and they were going on a mission that could last up to three years. That had been when she was a baby, 8 years ago. They had never returned, and she had put into the care of MI5. They had naturally past her onto CHERUB, and once you're in the system – you're never out.

"Hannah, if I could kick you out of CHERUB I would," Zara said trying to remain calm. "You are the most irresponsible teenager I have ever met. Even more so than James Adams – or your brother for that matter."

"But it wasn't just me!" she protested.

"Yes, but you were the most drunk, and none of the others got their lip pierced." Said Zara, referring to the incident that had happened the previous night.

"Okay, tell me the details again," said Jo Parker, Hannah's handler, to Zara, who was still in disbelief about why she had been called up to her office at eight o'clock in the morning.

"Well Hannah and friends left campus at 7 to go to the bowling alley. Following Hannah's lip piercing, the girls returned to Campus drunk, after picking up bottles of alcohol at the corner shop and downing all of them. They then proceeded to wake up nearly the entire main building screaming and shouting as they made their ways to their rooms. The others all attended lessons the next day, but Hannah bunked off with a Hangover." She said, glaring at the squirming girl.

"Well, that's completely unacceptable." Jo said to Hannah. All she could was fiddle with her lip ring.

"And take that out now." Zara said.

"What out?" Hannah answered back.

"Your lip ring!" she said losing her temper. "Hannah Finlayson, I have honestly had it with you! You have 300 punishment laps to run over the next month. Now get out of my office!"

Hannah passed over her lip ring and then legged-it out of the office, down the stairs, out of the main building and into the summer sunshine. She ran all the way through the woods, which ran for miles before the CHERUB boundary fence at the back of campus. She was out of breath when she finally reached her special spot. It was a small clearing in the woods with a mossy carpet that glowed right green and in the summer was dotted with wild flowers.

This was where she had come when she was six and her parents had died. That day she had buried the locket her mum and dad had given her when she was just a baby. She had put it in her wooden jewellery box and planted an oak tree on top in memory of her parents. No one else on campus knew she had done this (Even her brother Will) and she always came here when she was sad – or anytime really. She had come here when she passed basic training. Before and after her first mission, and whenever it was her mum's, dad's, her brothers or her own birthday. She just liked to be near the tree that carried on her parent's spirits.

Hannah sat cross legged on the ground. She reached into her pocket and pulled out another lip ring – she didn't want the hole to close up. She fiddled with the ring and began to think. She wondered how her life had turned out so rubbish. She was always in trouble, and she knew that she wasn't living her parents' legacy very well. They had been some of the best agents MI5 had known, and she had undone all their good work by flunking school. Although, she was one of _CHERUB's_ best agent's. She thought about how she had let her brother down. She just hoped that it was just trouble finding her, not her finding trouble.


	2. Chapter 2  SORTING IT OUT

Chapter 2

After about an hour of just sitting and thinking Hannah thought that she better go and get some food from the canteen. She had been called up to Zara's office at eight and hadn't had time for breakfast. It was now nearly ten o'clock and Hannah had a headache from not eating enough. She wandered along the gravel path leading up to the canteen, in no hurry. She knew that there was probably a teacher inside wanting to speak to her. And it was as if Hannah had seen it coming when, as she entered the canteen, Jo Parker her handler came up to her.

"Hannah," she said. But the girl just ignored her and grabbed some toast and went to sit down at a table. "Hannah." She said again, sitting on the opposite side of the table. "I'm trying to help you."

"Why I'm perfectly fine!" she said angrily staring the Handler hard in the face.

"Hannah. You are going to come up to my office now – without argument. Do you understand?" Jo said, with a look on her face that meant business.

"Urrgghhh," Hannah said, finishing eating and dragging herself away from the table to follow her handler up to her office. She scuffed her feet as she walked along the corridor, dreading what Jo might have to say to her.

When Hannah got into the office she felt uneasy. There was something about Jo's presence today that scared her. Hannah wasn't usually scared and she searched Jo's face for some sort of answer, but she found nothing.

"Now Hannah. I'm emailing all the staff on campus that take you for any subjects, and telling them to email me back after every lesson on you."

"Why?" Hannah said. She'd being saying that a lot recently.

"Because after the incident earlier I don't feel I can trust you." She said.

Hannah sighed. "Look I'm sorry. I've said it about a billion times before. And I obviously don't fit in at CHERUB. Everyone else always does what they're told, and I do try, but I can never seem to stay out of trouble. Just because my parents were great agents doesn't mean I am – or have to be." And with that, she left the office. She was about to take off again, but she stopped herself knowing that she shouldn't make a habit of it. Instead, she leant against the corridor wall, and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. _Wow_, she thought to herself, _my life really has turned out well_.

The office door opened, and Jo walked out. "Hannah, No one expects you to have to live up to your parents," she paused waiting for Hannah to interrupt, but the girl just stared at the carpet tiles. "But that's not an excuse to muck around. I know your brother finds it difficult, but all the kids here are in the same situation." Hannah still didn't speak. Jo sighed. "Come into my office," Jo said as she put an arm around Hannah and walked her into the office.

She sat her down and went over to the phone on her desk. She quickly punched in the numbers for Caroline Jacks, the CHERUB counsellor. CHERUB's often need someone to talk to when they come off missions as some of the things they see and have to do can be disturbing – especially if you're only a kid.

Jo Parker fidgeted as she waited for Caroline to pick up. After a few minutes she heard a voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hello?"

"Oh hi Caroline, It's Jo Parker." She said.

"Hi Jo! What can I do for you?" Caroline replied.

"Well I've got Hannah Finlayson here with me." Jo said.

"Oh, I heard she ran off."

"Yea I found her about 20 minutes ago in the canteen. She's now in my office," she said. Then she changed her voice to a whisper. "I think she's struggling a bit after her last mission."

"Okay. I can come round now, or you can bring her to me."Caroline said.

"You'd better come here." Said Jo. She didn't fancy the thought of trying to drag Hannah up two floors to Caroline's office.

Thoughts were reeling around Hannah's mind as she sat in the chair in Jo's office. She started to fiddle with her lip ring and was glad Jo hadn't told her to take it out. She tried to scream, but she felt sort of paralysed. _What's wrong with me?_ She thought, _why am I acting so weird? _

Then the office door opened.

"Hello," said Caroline quietly walking in.

"Hi," said Jo, "I've got to go see Zara. I'll be back in about a quarter of an hour."

"Okay," she replied.

Once Jo had left, Caroline pulled up a chair and sat opposite Hannah. "Are you Okay?" she asked the Girl. Hannah was silent for several minutes before she spoke. "I..." she trailed off as she felt tears pricking the back of her eyes.

"Its fine you don't have to say anything." She soothed, putting a hand on Hannah's shoulder.

"Just, when the bullet hit...and..." she trailed off again.

"You can come to me every Wednesday and we'll sort this out," said Caroline. Just as she had finished speaking Will came in.

"Umm hey," He said, "Zara said I should come and speak to you?"

"Yes," Caroline smiled at him. "Can I have a word outside?" Once they were outside and the door was firmly shut, she began to speak again. "Your sister completely broke down earlier today Will. She's taking James getting shot as her fault – and she's kept it bottled up for the past three months."

"I'm..." Will began, "I mean...this is all my fault."

"No Will, You can't blame yourself." She said.

"But I should have noticed something..." he trailed off.

"Will, you weren't even there when it happened." Caroline said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I think she needs some counselling. It's not helping that she feels she has to live up to your parent's example."

"I feel that way too sometimes. I guess they just set the standard high huh?" he laughed.

"But you understand this isn't funny," she said looking directly into his eyes.

"Yea, fully. Is she alright now?" Will questioned.

"Yes, but I think she just needs some time alone right now. I'll take her back to her room later and you can see her then." She said.

"Okay. Keep me updated if something else happens," He said.

"I will don't worry," she replied, walking back into the office.

As Will took the lift back up to his room he couldn't help feeling that this was somehow his fault. Hannah was his twin, and he hadn't picked up on her feelings.

When he got up to his room he found Jayson lying on his bed playing his Xbox. "Oh Sorry Will, Just came into see you, and well..." he paused, "Just got kind of side tracked."

"That's okay," said Will sitting down next to Jayson and running his hand through his hair.

"What's wrong," said Jayson immediately picking up that something wasn't right.

"Oh great," Will said closing his eyes. "You can pick up when I'm not feeling great, but I can't tell when my _twin_ isn't right."

"What you talking about?" he asked curiously, putting down his controls and muting the volume on the plasma screen.

"Hannah's broken down over James getting shot. She thinks it's all her fault and she's kept everything bottled up inside her for past three months." Will explained.

"Oh man..." Jayson said, "I'm sorry mate."

"Nah don't apologize." He said. "It's my fault I should've known."

"How?" Jayson said.

"I don't know...I just," He paused. "I'm meant to look after her...and..." He trailed off again.

"Will, mate. You can't blame yourself. And you're not _meant _to look after her.She's got all of CHERUB staff helping her. You're her brother, not her Dad." Jayson said. "Have a game of COD with me to take your mind off things."

"Mmm...Okay," Will said grabbing another controller and plugging it in. Jayson always knew how to make him feel better.

_**Sorry this is so short – just wanted to get it out quickly. Next chapter won't be out for a while tho x**_

_**AND I OWN ALL OF THE CHARACTERS THAT AREN'T FROM CHERUB! X ;) please R&R it really helps! xx**_


	3. Chapter 3 MISSING

Chapter 3

Will was sitting in John Jones's office with the other agents getting a last briefing before they went away in a day's time. But Will wasn't really listening – he was too busy thinking about Hannah. How was she going to cope when he wasn't here? What if she needed to talk to him? Reels of question ran around his mind, but in his heart he knew that she would be just fine.

"So is everyone happy that they know their background story?" John Jones asked the agents.

"Yes," they chorused, just wanting to get out of the stuffy office and get there dinner.

"OK, you can go now, then." He said. The teenagers practically ran out of the office, but John called Will back. "Will, are you completely happy about going on this mission," he asked. "I mean, with your sister and all?"

"Well," he paused. "I know she'll be alright here."

"Good. At least I know you're going to be alright!" John smiled as Will walked out. The others were already outside, but Will noticed that James had hung back. "Hey," he smiled at the boy.

"Hey," James smiled back. "How's your sister doing?"

"Err...okay I suppose," Will said, aware of an awkward tension surrounding the boys.

James put a hand on Will's shoulder and stopped walking, turning to look him in the eye. "If you need anything...anything at all, you just come speak to me, okay?" The boy said.

"Yea," said Will back. "I will, don't worry." Then James set off at a run, chasing after the others and Will was left standing alone in the corridor.

Slowly he made his way back to the main building, holding the cardboard file that contained his background information for mission, under his CHERUB t-shirt. The others had avoided the rain that had paused briefly just as the left mission control, but by the time Will had reached the main building he was soaked. He headed straight up to his room and had a shower before putting on clean CHERUB uniform and going to the canteen for dinner.

He grabbed a burger and salad from the serve-yourself bar, and went over to sit with his friends. "Hey," He said sliding his tray onto the table and plonking himself down on a spare seat. He expected his friends to be glad to see him but they were in silence, staring expectantly at him. Finally Jayson broke the awkward atmosphere. "Will," he said slowly, "You do know what's happened, don't you?"

Will looked blankly back at his best friend. "No..." He said, slightly confused.

"About Molly, your girlfriend?" Jayson said waiting for something to click inside of Will – but nothing happened. "Has Zara told you yet?" He finally asked, realising that his friend probably didn't know.

"What are you talking about?" Will asked back, guessing that something serious had happened by the looks on the faces of the people around him.

"Molly," Jayson said, "She's lost on her mission. They've sent out a missing agent alert. I...I thought you'd of known."

Will was lost for words. Molly Redwood. He didn't know what to say, his brain was working at a hundred miles an hour, trying to figure out all the facts. Well, what was there to say? They'd been partners in basic, best friends since...well they'd been friends forever really. Will had asked her out 5 months ago at Jayson's birthday party, and they'd never looked back. They were the most well known couple on CHERUB campus. Inseparable. Seeing one without the other was just as rare as seeing a unicorn.

"Will!" Jayson sad, bringing the boy out of his dream state. "Will!" Will rubbed his eyes and rested his head in his hands. "I...just..." He took a deep breath, fighting of the tears that were threatening him. "Well I wasn't really expecting that." He finally said.

"None of us were," said Da-Xia, Molly's Chinese best friend.

"And her mission was classified as 'low-risk'" added Riley Carter.

"Don't worry Will," said Caleb Reeves, another of Will's close friends. "CHERUB will find her, they always do."

oOo

Molly Redwood didn't have a clue where she was. The last thing she remembered was someone hitting her around the face. She looked around the room she was in. She couldn't see much from where she was tied up to the chair she was sitting on, but she guessed she was in a warehouse.

"Baby," said a voice that sounded like the people you get on old American cop shows.

"Kent," Molly said stiffly. "I should have known a creep like you would knock a little girl out and not give a shit about what happened to her,"

"Molly, sweetheart." He said though clenched teeth, pressing his face right up against hers. "You're gonna do what I tell you, or you might find yourself in a bit of trouble."

"Whatever," she said shrugging the comment of lightly, even though she was terrified inside.

Everything about Kent Eastwood gave her the creeps. His breath that stank of smoke and alcohol, his face that dropped slightly to the right and the scar the hung over his left eye. But then Molly thought about it logically for a second and her CHERUB training kicked into action. She could easily take down this guy. He was 51, with a beer belly and a balding scalp – but it was the people behind this man that she was most worried about.

Kent worked for a smuggling organisation that illegally imported drugs, weapons and generally whatever made the most money, into the UK. Molly had been infiltrating M.E – the main organisation. No one apart from the people highest up in the organisation knew what this meant, and that was one of the things Molly had been trying to find out.

This morning she had been talking to Clark Sandford (a main man) when he'd let it slip. And now she was piecing together the whole story. She knew that M.E needed to make sure the truth didn't get out – and Molly had no doubt that they would do whatever it took. Even if meant killing her.

oOo

Will had lost his appetite after hearing the news about Molly, so he had dumped his food in the bin and headed up to Zara's office. "Errrr, can I see Zara?" he asked the receptionist, slightly un-sure of what he was actually doing. The receptionist smiled at him. "She's just sent someone for you, but I'll tell her that you're already here." She walked into Zara's office, and a few seconds later she walked out leaving Zara at the door beckoning for him to come in. "Will," she said as he walked in and plonked himself on one of the leather chairs in the office. "I've been meaning to talk to you." She said softly. She poured herself a cup of tea and then continued, "I take it that you've already heard what's happened to Molly."

"Yea," he said, not completely trusting himself to speak.

"We have MI5 and CHERUB officials trying to track her down, and we think we may have found a lead. I'm not promising anything, but this lead looks promising, and it's actually in connection with your next mission."

oOo

_**Okay...dunno what to say really, apart from pretty please R & R! X **____** I'm really hung up on coursework for my GCSE's at the mo, so I'm falling behind every time I take an hour out to write this, so this chapter might be the last one for a while x only got like 2 reviews and they didn't really help much so anything is appreciated! Looking at other stories & they have like 20 review's so I know U can spare me some ;) Soz about the paragraph btw xxxx**_

_**Just another DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CHERUB characters, but everything else is mine – storyline, new characters etc. Etc. X 3**_

_**Thnx so much for reading this btw, now plz R & R! XD xx **_


	4. Chapter 4 MOLLY REDWOOD

Chapter 4

Will was lying on his bed trying to digest what Zara had said; _In connection with your next mission._ What did she mean by it? He leafed though his mission briefing, but couldn't find anything useful. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Will! Can I come in?" said the voice.

"Yeah, it's open Jayson." Will said recognising the voice of his best friend.

"Caleb's with me too," said Jayson walking into the room and flopping down on the bed next to Will.

Caleb plonked himself on the sofa and then Jayson broke the silence.

"So," he said. "What did Zara say?"

Will paused for a minute and then spoke. "She said what you told me, and then that they had people looking for Moll's. And then something else," he paused again, swallowing tears. "She said something about finding a lead in connection with that mission we're going on."

"Will, don't worry about Molly. You know that CHERUB will be able to find her." Caleb said, trying to comfort him.

"But what if they don't?" he said worriedly.

"Will, Molly is a really capable agent. You know that." said Jayson. "This is what she's been trained for; we've all been trained for it. To fight criminals and we always knew there would be a danger."

oOo

Molly didn't know how long she'd been sitting in the warehouse tied to a chair. She'd lost track of time, and her legs had gone all numb. She looked around the empty space trying to decide if she could escape.

She could tell that all the security cameras on the walls were fakes, which meant unless someone was _in_ the warehouse watching her; no one knew what she was up too. There were probably people guarding the outside of the building but Molly doubted that they'd be armed as M.E wasn't a very well supplied smuggling agency. You only got the best if you were the best.

There were racks of shelves lined up in rows, but none of them had anything on them. She searched the walls for a door, and when she found one her heart sank. It was right at the other end of the warehouse, as far away as her as possible. She was tied up at the far side of the ware house and if she was going to escape she was going to have to time this right.

Kent or one of the guards came to check on her every morning at around 9 o'clock an every evening at around 6 o'clock. During the day she was left alone apart from the occasional person just collecting something or other. This meant she couldn't escape during the day as she was more likely to be caught. She also knew that there were no guards at night primarily for the reason that it was so dark they wouldn't be able to see her escaping – that was if she hadn't managed to crash into something first.

Molly thought that she could take down Kent. She could feel the pocket knife in the side of her bra and the people who had searched her must have missed that. She didn't remember being searched, but the knife that had been strapped on the inside of her leg was missing, so she must have been.

She looked at the way she was tied up. Sitting on a chair, with her hands tied to the chair behind her back. But even though this doesn't sound great, Molly knew it was the way easiest to escape from if you were tied up. All you had to do was step through the loop of your arms, so you were standing behind the chair, and then cut yourself free. Although this was good, it did worry Molly. Why had they tied her up in such an easy way? At first Molly thought that maybe they had suspected her as an agent, and that this was a trap. But it didn't add up. She was the only agent on the mission and she hadn't leaked anything. The bugs she'd planted were untraceable from every bug tracking device known. But then she thought about it again.

She was a petite blonde girl, with a slight build and hidden strength. She had moon blue eyes, tanned skin and heart shaped face. The sort of girl you'd expect to have nothing but boys on her mind, and not the sort with a 3rd dan black belt in Karate _kicking_ boys' arses. Now she understood why she had been tied up so loosely.

She guessed that it was about 2 or 3 in the morning, and that she had been here at least two days now. She doubted that CHERUB would find her soon, so she decided to go through with her plan.

oOo

Zara sat in her office staring at the phone on her desk, wiling it to ring. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, and she normally wouldn't be on campus at this time, but she was waiting on information about Molly Redwood. She could feel her eyes dropping when there was a knock at the door. "Zara," said a feeble voice, which the chairwoman recognised instantly as Hannah Finlayson. The door opened and a girl wearing a navy CHERUB shirt, trackies and slippers came in. Zara stood up rushing over to the door. "Hannah?" she said confused, with a hint of anger in her voice. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in bed?" But then she saw the girls tear stained cheeks and guessed what was wrong. "It' about Molly isn't it." She stated as she pulled the teenager into a hug. The girl had been through so much in her life so far, that Zara almost admired her for holding on this long.

First her parents and elder sister get murdered, then her brother going missing on a mission, having to watch James Adams take a bullet, and now her brothers' girlfriend going missing. It was a lot for any teenager.

"Can I quit?" the girl said looking up at Zara.

"What do you mean quit?" Zara said, raising her eyebrows. "Leave CHERUB?"

"It's all too much," Hannah said pulling away from Zara and walking across the room to the windows that covered the south facing wall.

"Hannah I thought you would have learnt not to walk away when things get tough, and to stick it out." Zara said in an attempt to change the girls mind.

"Zara, I've been doing that for like the last ten years! I'm tired, fed up, and really sick of everything that I do going tits up!" Hannah replied.

"Okay. Number 1; please don't use bad language. Number 2; you're one of the best agents CHERUB has ever known. And Number 3; you really think that you're going to go out without a fight?" She said sitting back down in the chair behind her desk.

"Well, I don't know."Hannah sighed. "I'm just messed up really aren't I?"

"You've been through a lot, it's understandable." Zara comforted her.

"Yea, but I just want to go back to a normal life." she said.

"That would be a big change." Zara warned her.

"I know I'm just so tired. I could sleep forever," Hannah said.

"If you slept forever you'd never see anyone you know ever again," Zara said, picking her words carefully as she could tell they were heading onto tender grounds.

"Look, an agent can quit whenever they want cant they?" The girl insisted.

"Technically yes, but you're one of these best agents, only coming second to Lauren Adams, and she's practically the youngest black shirt ever!" Zara said.

"I dunno..." Hannah began, but she trailed off.

I know you don't really want to leave, so how about we have an agreement?" Zara said.

"What d'you mean?" Hannah said.

Zara saw that she had got the girls attention and carried on. "You have to promise not to leave CHERUB until Molly is found. Or if she is found before then you have to stay for a month. After that time if you decide to leave, you can."

Hannah hesitated for a minute, and then she put her hand out to Zara. "It's a deal," she said.

The teenager left and Zara went back to sitting at her desk, waiting for any information to come through. After about half an hour the phone rang and Zara leapt up to answer it. "Hello," she said, battling sleepiness.

"Zara," said a thick Scottish accent, which she recognised as Mac - CHERUB's former chairman.

"Oh thank god," she sighed. "Can I ask you for some advice?"

"If it's about Molly redwood, then no." He said. "I've already sorted it."

"Really?" She said stunned, and slightly confused. "When? How do you know about that anyway? How did you-"

"Zara Asker," He laughed, cutting off the reel of questions flying out of her mouth. "You haven't changed a bit since _you_ were an agent. And Ewart told me. Said he needed my help to get you home. Apparently you've been sleeping on the couch in _my_ office."

Zara laughed out loud when Mac referred to her office as his. He'd been out of the job for what? Nearly 4 years now? "So, have you actually found Molly, or what?"

"Well, we've located her, and made contact. But she's in a sticky situation. Kent Eastwood has kidnapped her and she's tied up in a warehouse in the middle of a business park. There aren't any cameras in the warehouse and it's only guarded in the day. The whole business park has practically no security at night apart from guards at the gate, but it's like a rabbit warren and you'd never find your way out at night." Mac said.

"Well what are we going to do about it?" she asked.

"There is one idea," Mac paused. "You know Hannah Finlayson?"

"Yes," Zara said, with some hesitation.

"Well, we thought that we could send her in, saying she's on work experience, to collect something from the warehouse which Molly is in." He said. "She would go in, collect a parcel which Ewart would have dropped off earlier. This is where the plan divides. If a guard follows her in to supervise her, she would follow plan A.

"What she would do is slide along the floor a small pack containing all the things Molly needs to escape; a pocket knife, a small handgun and an untraceable phone. It would also contain a small tracking device, which she could stick on to her, and we could see where she's going. We would then direct her using a small walkie talkie device, with earphones.

"Plan B is the plan that we're hoping to follow. It's much simpler, with Hannah cutting Molly free, and then the two girls departing together in one of the trucks that drives around the business park, collecting goods. This would b much simpler as we can just direct the girls through the truck radio and in the dark no one could they were just fourteen." Mac finished.

"Well looks like I don't have any decisions to make because you've done them for me! And that sounds like the best plan in the world," Zara said enthusiastically. "Except for one tiny detail. Kent Eastwood isn't who he says he is."


	5. Chapter 5  FILES

Chapter 5

Ewart Asker desperately flicked through Government 'wanted' files, trying to find a man named Tracy Averson. He was on his fifth filling cabinet, and had been going for nearly two hours. It would have been easy if the files had been in alphabetical order, but they weren't. His fingers were sore from paper cuts and his eyes ached from looking at so many names. He was just about ready to give up, when he found what he was looking for. "Gotcha!" he mumbled with relief as he finally pulled out the correct file.

He leafed through the faded yellow paperwork looking for pictures. _Any_ pictures. He picked up a report, written by late Jennifer Lang, who had died in an arsonist attack soon after the Mystery Murders. He turned the first page, but had to shut it quickly as it was covered in horrific images taken at the crime scene. No; crime _scenes._ He read the first part of the report.

_Tracy Averson is a Mass Murderer convicted of many small crimes before he committed the 62 Mystery murders. These took place between the 1__st__ January and the 23__rd__ August 2001, all across the Eastern side of Britain. Horrific shootings, Stabbings, hangings and arson attacks._ _The reason behind these attacks has never been understood, and Averson was never found. His only family at the time was his Brother George Averson who apparently knew nothing of why Tracy would do this. The victims' families will never feel safe while Averson is on the loose, and the British Intelligence has announced him 'untraceable'. All we can do now is hope that Averson is no longer with us._

Ewart held the picture lying on his desk, next to the one of Tracy Averson. A match. His hands were shaking as he picked up the phone and dialled the number for Zara's office. "Hello," said the voice on the other end. "Zara, we need to get Molly Redwood back as quickly as possible. She's in real danger."


	6. Chapter 6 BACK TO THE PAST

Chapter 6

Will looked over at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It said six o'clock, so instead of trying to go back to sleep he got up, grabbed a towel, his iPod and a bottle of water and headed over to the fitness centre to do an hour of lifting weights and running on the treadmills. As well as keeping him fit, it stopped him worrying about what was going on around him - Molly missing, Hannah in counselling and his new mission.

When he got into the fitness centre that sat above the main pool complex he was surprised to find Jo Parker running on one of the treadmills. When she spotted him she paused the machine and called him over. "I've been meaning to talk to you," she said taking a swig of her drink and wiping the droplets of sweat running down her forehead with the back of her hand.

Will slung his towel over the side of the machine next to her leaned against it. "Why?" he said, even though he knew what it was probably about.

"I just wanted to check that you're alright with everything that's going on." She said.

"Well if I'm honest, I haven't had a decent night sleep in about two weeks," He admitted.

"I can always schedule some time off, if you need it?" she asked.

Will looked down, "I dunno really, everything bad that could have happened has just all seemed to happen at once,"

"I know how you feel," she said, "And if you ever need anything, come to me, okay?"

"Yea sure," he confirmed with a half smile.

"Good." She said smiling back, "Why are you down here so early?" she said starting her machine back up.

"Couldn't sleep," Will replied, starting his up too. "Rather be here than lying in bed."

Jo just nodded, concentrating on her running. Will plugged his headphones into the machine as he began to run, and programmed them into the audio on the TV screen hanging just in front of him.

He didn't notice the time, and when he did look at the clock he saw that it was ten to seven which meant if he was going to have time for breakfast and finish his homework, he had to hurry up. Jo had left about half an hour ago and he was the only person left in the gym. He had meant to lift some weights, but he didn't have time for that now.

He quickly jogged over to the main building, and up into his room. Slipping on CHERUB uniform, it was eight fifteen by the time he headed into the cafeteria and his friends were already sitting at their usually table with half eaten breakfasts in front of them. As Will joined them Jayson turned to him. "Will! Where have you been man? You missed the punch up!" he laughed.

"Punch up?" Will said disbelieving. There were hardly _ever_ fights on CHERUB campus, because discipline was so strict.

"Yea." Jayson confirmed. "It was the funniest thing in a long time mate."

"Wish I'd seen it," Will said tucking into the plate of bacon and toast in front of him.

"Don't worry, I recorded it on my phone," Annabelle said searching for the video clip on her phone.

"Who was it between?" Will asked.

"Err this kid in a grey shirt that I don't know and Kevin Sumner." Jayson said.

"That's a bit unfair, isn't it?"Will said raising his eyebrows. "I mean Kevin's got tonnes of muscle and he's older!"

"Yea, but it was funny," Jayson laughed.

"Wish I could have seen it," Will shook his head. "We hardly have punch ups."

"Found it!" Annabelle squealed passing her phone over to Will. He was about to press play when John Jones came running in. "All agents on my mission, please report to my office immediately!" he shouted, silencing all the cherub's. Will and the other agents on the mission jumped up and raced out of the cafeteria, looking at each other with confused faces.

oOo

James was just setting up his classroom ready to teach Maths to some red shirts, when Meryl Spencer came rushing in. "James," she said, with a hint of urgency in her voice. "You're needed at mission control immediately. I'll take it from here." James looked at her, waiting for an explanation. "Go!" she urged him. He collected his stuff and chucked it haphazardly into his drawstring bag and walked out of the room.

As he jogged across the sports field (A short cut that you weren't normally allowed to take unless it was an emergency) he noticed Kyle Jogging out of the Dojo. "Hey!" he shouted across to him. Kyle saw James and ran over to him. "You know anything about this?" he asked.

"Dunno, but rumours are that they've located Molly," Kyle said.

"Really?" James said.

"Well it was just a rumour," Kyle shrugged.

When the boys entered John Jones's office, they were surprised by the amount of people it was filled with. James looked around. There were the agents on the mission, Molly's mission controller, Zara & Ewart Asker, Mac, some of the ethics committee, and two MI5 officials.

"Come in and sit down!" Zara said briskly pointing to a space at the long table that had miraculously appeared in the office. John had obviously started speaking, so James and Kyle wasted no time in grabbing their seats. James also noticed Hannah Finlayson sitting next to Will. He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Now that we're all here," John glared at the two boys, "We can begin."

An Ethics committee member raised her hand. "Can I speak for a moment?" she asked.

"Sure, go ahead," Said John, looking glad that he didn't have the responsibility of the starting meeting off.

"If everyone could look in their briefings at page 50 please," she paused letting everyone turn to the page. James picked up the booklet in front of him and flicked though it. There was a photo of a man named Kent Eastwood. He looked at the picture more closely and he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen this man before.

Kyle nudged him. "He looks like that man, George Averson." Now that James had heard the name he did look uncannily like Averson; the man that they were supposed to be tracking in their next mission. But he still reminded James of someone else – he couldn't shake the image from his head.

"As you can see, Kent Eastwood is just a name that doesn't really exist." Said the woman, whose name happened to be Margo Smiths. "If you compare him to a picture of George Averson, you have an almost exact match; except for the eye and hair colour. But then if you turn over the page, you can see a picture of a man named Alan, and this man looks exactly the same again."

James stared at the picture of Alan. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I know this man." He blurted out.

"James, I'm sure you don't," said Zara.

"No, I do. He worked for my mum. He was one of her _crew_." He insisted.

"What else do you know?" said Mac, listening intently.

"Urmmm, not much," he admitted. "But I know some people who are really close to him."

"Are you sure?" said Zara, still not convinced.

"We'll look into this," said Mac. "James, speak to me at the end." James nodded.

He kind of switched off for the rest of the meeting. Various people spoke, but they didn't say anything much different to anyone else.

Eventually it was concluded that a new mission would be drawn out; partly to rescue Molly and partly to investigate The Alan Darn Mystery.

When James stood up to leave, his legs nearly collapsing beneath him, because he had been sitting in the same position for so long.

"James," called Mac, "A word?"

"Oh yeah," James said Blinking to bring himself back into this world.

"Did the meeting put you to sleep?" Mac said smiling.

"Just a bit," James said smiling at how Mac was able to put anybody at ease - though he was all too aware that he was trying to get as much information out of him as possible.

"Take a seat," he said pointing to the chair next to him. James sat down. "Now," said Mac, his tone changing, "What do you know about Alan Darn?"

"Well, you know that my mum ran her robbing thing, and she had tonnes of people helping her. There were people who just worked for her once or twice to earn a bit of extra cash, but she had this like group of close friends who did everything she couldn't do from the couch." He said.

"And Alan was one of these people?" Mac asked.

"Yea." James nodded.

"How well did you know him?" Mac asked.

"He wasn't at the top, and I and Lauren were only allowed to see the people Mum trusted most. She didn't want us getting hurt." He said, sighing at the memories of his past.

"So you didn't actually _know_ him?" Mac Sighed.

"Yea I did," James said. "A few years before Mum went, one of her higher Workers grassed her up to the police. After that she had to scrap quite a lot of people, but she kept Alan because even though he wasn't high up, he had been working for her for ages and was really loyal. He only lived a few doors down from us."

"You better go get some dinner," said Mac straightening up, "There's another meeting tomorrow and before that could you come up to my office. You can excuse yourself from lessons."

"What time?" said James standing up and pushing his chair under the table.

"Nine o'clock sharp," He replied.

"Okay," James said as Mac shut the office door behind them. James thought as he walked back towards the main building. He had three hours before he had to report to Meryl's office for punishment laps. He was glad that he might be able to help Molly, but there was someone else on his mind - Hannah. He'd been trying to find the time to see her again, but with all the homework he had, and punishments, he hadn't found a spare moment. _Well I've got three hours,_ he thought. So he decided to head up to Jo Parkers office.

When he got there the door was closed and he could hear voices speaking in hushed tones. He was about to press his ear to the door to have a listen when it opened, and Caroline Jacks walked out. James' excitement ended when he realised that it was just Hannah's counselling sessions. "Can I see Hannah?" He asked.

"Jo's just having a word at the moment, but after that you're welcome," she said, shutting the door behind her and walking off down the corridor leaving James standing alone. After a couple of minutes Hannah appeared. "Oh, hi James," she said, looking rather confused.

"Just wanted to check that you're okay," he said.

"Yea I'm fine _now_," Hannah said as the pair headed towards the lift. "It just all got too much, you know?"

"Mmm, yea," James said.

"But like everything is getting sorted out now so it's all cool," she said. "I'm going to the cafeteria too grab some food cause I haven't had any lunch yet, Do you wanna come with?"

"Yea, defo," said James eager to eat, as he realised he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. As they got into the lift he spoke up again, "You should speak to Will." He said. "A couple of days ago he was killing himself that he hadn't noticed anything was going was going on with you."

"Yea, I know." She replied. "I haven't spoken to him in about three days I've been so busy."

As they waited for the lift to arrive, James was killing himself for not talking to Hannah sooner – it had lifted a big weight off his chest.


	7. Chapter 7 THE BEGINNING OF THE END

**Okay, so it has been a while since I updated but here you are...**

**Any questions then plz pm me x **

**Allreader – yea I got the ages of all the agents muddled up, but plz bare wiv me, this is my FIRST fanfic x **

Molly Redwood was starting to give up on CHERUB. She knew that going on missions was risky, but she'd been at CHERUB since she was five and had grown up with the idea of kids being spies. CHERUB had made contact with her two days ago. But that was _two_ days. _Two_ days _too_ long. She was starting to wonder if something had gone wrong. And, just when she was giving up, she saw the little flashing light that meant CHERUB was here. This was her signal. She knew the plan, and she just had to follow it.

The little flashing red LED was the signal telling her that it was all clear. Dot, dash dash, dot. Quickly and quietly she pushed the chair behind her. She was only tied up by her arms, so she slipped through the loop made by her arms and the chair. From here she managed to remove the small knife strapped tightly around her thigh and cut though the rope around her hands.

She was free.

Molly ran over to the corner of the warehouse and pulled a concrete block out of the wall. The block was actually made of polystyrene and when she cracked it in half it revealed a small hand gun, two smoke grenades and two stun grenades. There was also a mini tracking device disguised as a plaster which you stuck onto your skin. Molly peeled off the wrapper to activate it and stuck it under her jumper, on her stomach, out of harm's way.

Then she crouched on the floor and waited for the next signal.

oOo

On CHERUB campus all hell had let loose. One of the red shirts pets had escaped and staff and agents were rushing around to find it before it chewed through vital electrics. Will was in the middle of helping the search party, when John Jones told him to pack his bags as their mission had been scrambled. Will was in the middle of frantically throwing clothing and other necessities into a suitcase when Hannah came in.

"Hey," she said, but it was followed by an awkward silence, while Hannah stood there waiting for her brother to speak. Eventually he mumbled out "You gunna help or what?" and Hannah grabbed what she could and started filling another case.

"You not going to say anything then?" she asked. Will looked up from what he was doing and ran his hands through his hair. "Sorry," he said, sighing. "Just...you know what it's like, missions and that."

"Yea," she said hugging him. He was her brother, and even though he could be really annoying, she loved him really.

"Hey they found that Gerbil yet?" he said referring to the animal that him and most of CHERUB had been searching for.

"Errr, dunno." Her reply was followed by another awkward silence. Hannah was still packing when a beeping noise went off.

"Hey that's my watch." Will said, an element of alarm hindering in his voice. "We're meant to meet john down at the minivan in 5 minutes."

"You can't have that much more to pack?" Hannah asked.

"Well no, but you know. You feel like you have to pack for every possible scenario." He said shrugging.

"Okay then I'll grab my case and meet you down there." She said.

"See you in a bit!" Will called after his twin.

oOo

It was 3:05 in the morning when Molly received the second signal - 8 hours since the first. This time the LED was yellow and it told her that she was able to look around the warehouse without the worry of getting caught.

CHERUB had hacked into the security of the industrial estate which the ware house was situated in. This meant that they could keep an eye on who went in and out of the estate and warn Molly if she was in danger.

Quickly and quietly she crept into the office made out of moveable dividers, and started leafing throughpaper work. After about five minutes and no finds, she moved over to the computer. She wiggled the mouse and the welcome screen appeared. There were two accounts; one said user and the other said George. From training she knew hat criminals hid files and she was more likely to find important documents on the user accounts, but when she selected it a box popped up reading 'please type your password'.

Molly took out a USB from her pocket and plugged it into the USB port. An information box appeared in the top left hand corner of the screen and, within seconds it had cracked the password and the desktop was loading. She unplugged the USB stick from the computer and replaced it with a different one. She opened up My Computer and selected the USB tile. She moved it into My Documents and ran the program installed on it. She then set to work trying to pick the lock on a draw in the desk.

oOo

The group of CHERUB agents arrived at the house they would be living in during the mission at ten o'clock in the evening. They were all tired from the drive, and headed to the first room they came across. As Will headed up the stairs he could already hear the rest of the gang fighting over which room they wanted, and he was too tired to fight, so he walked along to the last door in the hall and opened it. Luckily when he opened the door, a box room _didn't_ appear. Instead, a double bed laid in the middle of the floor and through another door an en-suite bathroom. Will sighed with relief as he dumped his bags on the floor. He shut the door and striped off his top and shoes before jumping into the bed and getting some well earned rest.

Will woke up at about 8 o'clock the next morning and headed straight downstairs. He walked into a Kitchen bustling with people. "Morning Will," Called Gabrielle from the other side of the room.

"Hey," he said, taking Glass from one of the kitchen units and filling it with apple juice from the fridge and downing it. "Guess I'm last up?" he laughed.  
"Well no one wanted to wake you up. We've all been up since like 7." She said as she passed him a plate with two pieces of toast on it. "Last bits of bread, saved them for you."

"Ah thanks. You didn't have to do that." Will found a spare chair and placed it at the end of the table. He was in the middle of crunching his way through the second slice when John walked in, closely followed by Zara.  
"Alright you lot," He said loudly clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "Today we have a lot of work to do. I'm holding a meeting in the lounge at precisely 9, so if everyone could get their buts showered and dressed by then it would be brilliantly." Will looked at Gabrielle, and they both couldn't help laughing at the sarcasm in John's voice. "What do you two find so funny?" He asked. The pair went quiet. "I suggest that you stay in my good books, both of you. I'm under a lot of stress and I have a whole room of files ready to be loaded onto the campus database when we get back. If you don't want to spend the whole summer in mission preparation then I'd keep your mouths shut if I were you." An awkward silence followed and then John continued. "Well now that's sorted, let's get down to business."

"Molly is hard at work collecting evidence for us to use, and at exactly four am tomorrow we will be going for the raid. Everyone needs to be in bed at seven." He said, all the agents groaned and were about to comment when John held up his hand, "It doesn't matter how old you are, you still need sleep."

"Let me just get straight to the point." Zara said in a matter of fact tonne. "Tonight, or tomorrow, is going to be very stressful for everyone. For the rest of the day you can all do whatever you want providing you are back in this kitchen at 4 o'clock. I will explain fully what you will be doing later." She looked around at the agents in front of her. "Is that understood?" She waited for a reply but all that came was a few teenage grunts and scraping of chairs on the kitchen tiles. "Nice to know," she said sarcastically, to no one in particular.

"Yes it is understood," said James creeping up behind her. Zara spun around and looked him in the eye. "Why are you the godfather of my child again?" she asked jokingly.  
"Can't you tell from the name?" he laughed. "God, you know the most amazing being?"

"That does definitely not apply to you," Zara laughed.

After half an hour everyone had paired off. Will and Jayson had found a decent football in the garage and had headed out to find a park. Hannah and Gabrielle had gone off to the local shopping centre, and James and Kyle had grabbed beers out the fridge and gone off to find what can only be described as trouble.

Zara and John settled themselves in the lounge and started setting up the equipment for later. She opened a huge suitcase and inside found a jungle of wires. "This is going to be a long day," she said to John sighing.


	8. Chapter 8 TEENAGE MINDS

Chapter 8

Molly was so tired. Her whole body ached and she was covered in cuts and bruises. She had been copying data off the computer in the office for almost 7 hours. She crept back into the office and suddenly felt a wave of panic rise through her when she realised the time. It was 3 in the afternoon, and Kent _always _came to check on her at quarter past. Hurriedly she laid the files in the correct place on the desk and switched the computer off. Molly tied her hands loosely together behind the chair and waited.

After ten minutes Kent arrived. "Molly baby!" he called. "I've come to check that my little girl hasn't escaped!"

"I'm not your bloody little girl!" she snapped.

"Shut up! I didn't ask you to speak!" he said, slapping her across the face. He then crouched down in front of her, pressing his face right up against hers. "Your little rescue party have 48hrs to show up, or you get the bullet." Kent spat, turning on his heel and walking away.

Molly nearly had a coughing fit after inhaling Kent's breath. The man must smoke _at least _100 fags a day and his breath _constantly_ smelled of alcohol.

After giving it another twenty minutes to make sure Kent had gone, Molly resumed her previous task; finding any evidence on Kent's gang.

oOo

John Jones paced the kitchen, occasionally glancing at his watch and tutting under his breath. He was starting to annoyed when at five to four the group of agents emerged – just in time - laughing and chatting though the front door.

"Alright you lot!" he shouted above their racket. "Come in quickly and sit down."

The agents gathered around the large pine kitchen table, grabbing whatever chairs and tools they could find. James ended up on a piano stall, Kyle, Gabrielle and Hannah had a wooden bench on one of the long sides of the table and Will and Jayson both had brought down office chairs from upstairs. Zara and john had dragged sofa chairs in from the lounge. 

"Okay," John began. "You all know the basics of this mission. The main purpose is to rescue Molly. That is _the_ most important aspect. We would also like to get evidence against Kent Eastwood, and maybe even get information as to where and how he is illegally shipping things into the UK. It would be a bonus to be able to catch Kent and question him. But we _have_ designed the plan so he _won't_ be there." 

"Hannah and Gabrielle are leaving at midnight, and sneaking in when the security changeover is taking place. There is a fifteen minute gap when no one is manning the front entrance and the CCTV is not being watched." Zara said. She unrolled a big map onto the table, which showed the whole area from a birds-eye-view. "We will be parked in this multi-storey car park, in the van, and we'll be able to watch everything that you do."

"Oh god," said James, as he rolled his eyes jokingly.  
"Now everyone can see you scratch your balls!" Kyle laughed. Will and Jayson cracked up but the girls, John and Zara looked less than impressed.  
"Grow up!" Said Gabrielle, frowning disapprovingly in Kyle's direction.  
"Boy's!" John bellowed, "I can easily arrange for you to be taken back to campus and replaced by someone more deserving."

"As I was saying," Zara said, "The main purpose of this mission is to rescue Molly, and we will be guiding Hannah and Gabrielle through the estate towards her, using mini ear pieces. Jayson and Will will be sneaking in through a pre-cut hole in the fence at the back of the estate, in a CCTV blind spot. They will then attempt to recover all the information and evidence Molly has collected.  
"James and Kyle will wait across the road in a car and when the girls come back out they will drive away quickly. Jayson and Will will have to take a short jog through the woods that back onto the car park that me and John will be in. The others will meet us there. "

"James and Kyle also have the task of keeping watch. As I said, there is a fifteen minute gap where no one is on duty in the security control room, but the cameras will keep recording. It's important that you drive away as quickly as you can and we have to hope that no one is going to be following you." John said.

"The car you're using is just a plain black VW polo. When you get onto the road leading up to the estate you will need to pull over and take the number plates off. That way security won't be able to track you." Zara added.  
"Does everybody understand?" John asked the group, who all nodded half-heartedly. "Alright, I want you all in bed at 7; anyone who is not, will be running laps when we get back to campus."

The boy's grabbed frozen pizza out the freezer, cooked it in the micro wave and headed up stairs to play COD. The girls on the other hand chose sandwiches and decided to call their friends back on campus to reassure them on Molly's safety.  
At half six Zara came upstairs and told everybody to get ready for bed, despite protests from the boys.

oOo

Will fumbled around on his bedside table trying to find the sleep butting for his alarm. He sighed as he knocked over the glass of water and heard the smash as the tumbler hit the tiled floor. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, but drew his right foot back up when a shard of glass pierced his skin. "Shit!" he yelped, hoping across the floor towards the door. He reached for the door handle, but it swung open and Zara's face popped around the door.  
"Do we have a first aid kit?" Will asked as Zara starred open mouthed at the blood trickling onto the crisp cream carpet.  
"Sit down on the bed, I'll go get it." Zara said rushing into the bathroom to retrieve the kit. When she came back she opened the kit up and took out a pair of tweezers. She steadied her hand before reaching down and cleanly pulling the shard out of Wills foot. She then dabbed on hydrogen peroxide and bandaged his foot.

"Are you going to be alright doing this mission?" She asked him as she packed away the kit.  
"Yeah, I'm sure I can manage," Will said, wincing as he took a step with his injured foot.  
Zara didn't look convinced, "Will if you ca-"  
"I'm sure I'll be okay!" he interrupted her, continuing his painful steps towards the door. Zara was going to speak, but she stopped herself. _He'll be fine,_ she thought, _he's had training- he knows what to do.  
_  
Will was the first downstairs and grabbed himself a bowl of cocoa shreddies and some apple juice. Finally Kyle came downstairs. As usual, he was dressed immaculately, even if it was three in the morning.  
"Alright?" he asked as Kyle brushed past.  
"Yeah, you?" Kyle asked back.  
"Bit nervous to be honest." Will said.  
"Actually I'm a bit nervous too." Kyle admitted. "However many missions you do, I don't think the nerves ever go away."  
"Thank god I'm not the only one." Will laughed.  
"Mate, you just gotta have fun, might as well enjoy it while you can." Kyle said.

Gabrielle walked in, sat down and promptly fell asleep at the table. Kyle and Will were silently killing themselves they were laughing so much. Kyle sneaked over to the fridge and grabbed the squirty cream. He covered the top of her head with a big swirl so that she looked like an ice cream sundae. Will found some 100's and 1000's and sprinkle them on top. They were in the middle of taking pictures of their creation when Zara walked in and woke Gabrielle up.

"What the fuck?" Gabrielle shouted. "Why are you such idiots?"  
"Boys this is unacceptable. I would send you back to campus, but we have a job to do. When we get back to campus I will be speaking with you handlers and I'm sure that they will set a _lovely _punishment for you." Zara said, smiling sarcastically.

Gabrielle stormed upstairs and the boys heard her scream and then James came running downstairs in a laughing fit. "Was that you two?" he asked.  
"Sadly it was," Zara said answering for Will and Kyle.  
"You legends!" James laughed.

Zara turned around and gave him a glare. "Seeing as you find it so funny, I'm sure you'd find helping Will and Kyle on their punishments even funnier?"  
"No, sorry," James said, his face turning serious.

"Good." Zara said, picking up her cup of tea and a plate with a slice of toast on it and heading back upstairs.  
"One word," Kyle said, "Period." At this the boys all set off laughing again.


	9. Chapter 9 FAKE BRAVADO

Chapter 9

"Oww!" Will yelped as yet another thorn drew a bloody line across his arm.  
"Shhh," Jayson hissed back from behind him. The boys had been trying to figure a way through the dense undergrowth without much success for the last 20 minutes. They were both covered in splinters and scratches and had mistakenly walked into bog leaving their boots and the bottom of their trousers covered in a thick stinking mud.

"Found it!" Will said triumphantly, in a slightly louder voice than what Jayson thought was safe.  
"Shut up!" he hissed, "They'll here us at this rate,"  
"Alright," Will said, slightly offended.

The boys squeezed through the pre-cut hole and crouched down low as they headed across a grassy field and hid behind one of the warehouses. They waited silently for a minute before venturing out into the dimly lit estate roads. Every 20 meters there was a street lamp, and the boys were careful to avoid the pools of light they created.

"Where is the warehouse we're meant to be going to?" Will asked in a hushed tone, suddenly aware that they had just automatically turned left along the road.  
"All I know is that its warehouse 32. So we just have to find number thirty" Jayson said.  
"Errr, found it," Will said pointing through the dark at a warehouse with a giant stainless steel number 32 on it. "But it looks like someone has already been here, it's unlocked. The doors wide open." He pulled the gun out of his jeans waist belt, and motioned for Jayson to do the same. They crept silently up to the warehouse and their jaws practically fell open at what they saw. Kent Eastwood had Hannah, Gabrielle and Molly at gunpoint.

"Crap." Jayson said.  
"We need to get onto Zara and John, _right_ away," Will said. He was about to speak again but he heard the shuffling of footsteps behind him, and him and Jayson swung around immediately guns poised.  
"Agent number 20368,"the person whispered.  
"Oh James," Will said, immediately recognising his voice.  
"Don't worry, I've seen the situation," James said calmly. "I've notified Zara and she's getting an armed response team from MI5 who are in the area down to help us. We're to keep her updated on _any_ changes."

Will sighed a huge sigh of relief. It was nice to not have the worry of responsibility over the situation on his back for once. Kyle walked over, turning off the screen on his mobile. "John said to secure all exits of the warehouse. There's a fire exit up there which Will can take, James you take this front one and me and Jayson will take the back. If anything changes or you need a hand, buzz me," Kyle said.  
"Kay," James replied nodding. "I don't think the response team will be long.  
"Good," Jayson said, "It's fucking freezing out here man,"

The group split and covered their exit areas. Will peeked through the keyhole on the door. A tear trickled down his check and he wiped it away furiously. Three girls were in that room – and they were all special to him. Molly was his girlfriend; they'd been going out for over 10 months. Hannah was his _twin. _His sister, his best friend. And even Gabrielle, who he'd only known well for the duration of this mission, was family now. If any of them were killed, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

He felt the urge to just rush in and save them all, but his conscience reminded him of his training. It was safety in numbers, and with so many guns being flashed around, he didn't have a choice apart from to sit tight for the time being.

Will brushed his hand over the handgun in his trousers and felt safe as the cold metal touched his skin. He'd always been the one to make decisions in life, and now having others controlling the situation made him feel better, but if things went wrong he could still handle himself.

His phone vibrated and will picked up the call. "Hey Will, its James. I've got good news and bad news. Good news is that the ART are on their way, bad news is that they could be up to half an hour yet. Zara and John want us to move in now, and we don't have a choice. MI5 have just traced a call Kent made an hour ago asking for back up and a van to ship the girls out in."

Will felt a new wave of panic rise through his body.

"So what are we gonna do then?" Will asked James nervously, not wanting to know the answer.  
"The plan is for you to jump down from the galley behind Kent and over power him from behind. Jayson will jump with you and then me and Kyle will rush in and unarm him. Kyle's given Jay a pair of plastics cuffs and you can somehow get Kent into those. We'll then focus on getting the girls out and then on moving Kent."  
"Err, okay," Will said, not feeling okay at all. "When are we gonna make the move?"  
"Jayson will be heading up to you in a minute; I'll text you when the time is right." James said.  
"Fine," Will said, ending the call.

He didn't feel fine. In fact he felt a lot less than fine. All his bravado thoughts about safety a minute ago had completely vanished. A better way to describe how he was feeling at the moment was fucked.

He heard Jayson coming up the steps and flashed him a nervous grin. "Alright mate?"  
"Nope," Jayson said bluntly. "This plan is gonna fail, big time."  
"Your right there man," Will laughed.  
"I wish I could be back in my bed on campus, playing fifa," He said.  
"Really?" Will said, eyebrows raised.  
"Yeah, and leave all this stuff to the professionals," Jayson said.  
"Jay," Will said, seriously, "We are the professionals." 

**A/N: hey there, haven't updated in awhile b/c ive been revising for gcse's ;/ (Boo, hiss) but im back now so the chapters will be coming up quick! Btw, yes its ended on a crap cliffie, but chapter 10 will be up soon. Add me to story alert and don't forget to R&R peeps! ;) 3 **


	10. Chapter 10 COFFEE

Chapter 10

Will brushed a speck of rain off his cheek. It had been five minutes since James had told him the 'master plan' and Will wished that he'd hurry up and give him the go because he really didn't want to get soaked. "You know what we're doing right?" he checked with Jayson, for the thousandth time.  
"Yeah, stop worrying, your usually the one who wants to get in there and kill someone," Jayson said.  
"I don't want to kill anyone," Will say tersely.  
"Chill," Jayson raising his hands in mock surrender.  
"I am!" Will said, a little too loudly. A few seconds later Will's phone buzzed. He unlocked the screen and opened a message from James.

_Do you guys wanna make any more noise? 3 more mins & we'll go. Set ur watch from my next text_

"That was James," Will said, typing a quick ok and sending the message.  
"What did he say?" Jayson asked.  
"To set our watches to 3 minutes from his next text and then we're moving in," Will replied, readying his watch. About thirty seconds later his phone vibrated and he whispered "Go!" to Jayson, simultaneously pressing the button on his watch to start the timer. 

As the seconds ticked by, Will prepared himself more and more. He wasn't worried about himself so much, but to whether Hannah would be alright. She'd only just got over her break down, and he still worried that it could happen again.  
Suddenly there were only 30 seconds left on Wills watch. He turned to Jayson, "All ready?" he asked.  
"Yeah, is your gun loaded?" Jayson asked back.  
"Yeah, got the cuffs?" Will said.  
"In my pocket," he replied. 

The boys crept up to the fire escape door leading onto the gallery that ran all around the inside of the warehouse. It was five metre jump from the gallery down to the floor but that was nothing for the two CHERUBS – they'd faced the height obstacle with its ten metre jump enough times, this was nothing. As the timer ticked down to ten Will took a reassuring pat on the handgun in his waistband. The boys got up close to the door and were both subconsciously counting down the seconds under they're breath. 

The next few seconds went by in a blur for will; Jayson kicked the door in and Will rushed in pulling the gun out of his waistband and pointing it directly at Kent. "Don't move!" he shouted, keeping his voice steady. 

Jayson jumped down first and landed a surprise attack on Kent, knocking the gun out of his hands and picking it up himself. Will then jumped down, throwing a well aimed punch at Kent's shoulder, and then a swift kick in the guts. As Kent tried to shout for help Jayson knocked him onto the floor by slamming the barrel of his gun into Kent's temples. Will grabbed the cuffs, snapping them onto the man's wrists.  
Kent struggled and it took both the boys full power to hold him still – but he soon stopped struggling when Jayson aimed the gun at his chest. 

Meanwhile, James and Kyle were busily cutting through three layers of rope that held the girls in place on their chairs. They cut Molly free first, but instead of enjoying her first few minutes of freedom again, she rushed to help the boys cut out Hannah and Gabrielle. The two girls winced as the rope burnt the skin on their wrists in the attempt to get everyone out as quickly as possible.  
Just as they were freed, the armed response team rushed in, firing a few warning shots into the ceiling and ordering everyone to get down on the ground. 

"Do they not know who we are?" Kyle whispered to James.  
"I don't think—" James began, but he stopped when a H&K PSG1 was waved about threateningly under his nose.  
"Shut it kid," said the officer, "Your in deep enough trouble as it is,"  
"Agent 20638" James tried, hoping the officer would believe him, and realise that he was on their side.  
"Look," the officer said, crouching down and pushing his face right up against James' so their noses were squashed up together. "I'm not playing games kid. Do you know what this is?" he pointed to the PSG1. "This is a high accuracy, semi automatic rifle, for police and military use _only. _It would rip your skull apart in two seconds flat. Now, do you really want me to do that?" 

James shook his head, not doubting for one second that the officer didn't mean his words. But unfortunately for him, James had been through CHERUB basic training, so the lecture was lost on him, filtering through his head like information on a database. 

Realising that James had nothing left to say the officer hitched him up off the floor, and in the blink of an eye had him in cuffs and taken off to vans waiting outside. Everyone was cuffed and taken outside, before being searched and loaded into the vans. 

The boys had been put into one van, the girls in another and Kent in the back of a police car. As the convoy headed out towards the main road, Kyle spoke. "James, they took all the things that are letting Zara and John track us."

Zara rubbed her eyes wearily struggling to focus on the screens she was monitoring in the back of the van her and john had been sitting in for almost two hours now. The minute she saw that the ART had driven in through the front gates of the estate, she let out a long sigh of relief. Turning away from the monitors she removed the headphones from around her ears and let them dangle loosely around her neck. 

"ART are here," she said to John, who was still staring passively at his screen. He turned round, rubbing his eyes and taking off his headphones too. "Great," he said, "Do you wanna go get some coffees or something? I'm craving a caffeine boost." 

"Sure," Zara said. She felt herself relax a little as she walked out into the dim early morning light. ART were here now, she would no doubt get a call from MI5 some time later on, telling her where to pick up the kids. She'd arranged for Jennifer, the CHERUB counsellor, to come down to the house and go through everything with the agents – to check they were ok, especially the girls. She'd specifically asked for an ART unit qualified to deal with CHERUB, and with the size of this mission, she had no doubt they wouldn't deliver. 

There was a coffee machine outside the station that was directly next to the car park Zara and John were parked in. She took polystyrene up from the top of the machine and slipped it into a holder, before slotting the money into the machine and pressing the 'latte' option. Three minutes later she was holding two steaming cups of coffee and heading back to the van, shivering in the cool morning air. 

But when she stepped into the Van John was all but calm. 'Zara, we have a problem,' he said in a distracted tone, hap-hazardly pressing buttons and staring into flickering monitors.  
'What's wrong?' she said, placing one of the cups on a coaster next to John.  
'All the kids tracking devices have stopped moving,'  
'What do you mean?' she said, confused.  
'Well when I say stopped moving, they are moving but as one. And they're going in a completely different direction to the way that the ART vans with kids in are going.' John explained. 

A switch clicked in Zara's brain, and she immediately understood what happened. 'I asked for an ART unit qualified to work with CHERUB, but they obviously didn't understand the importance of that,'  
'Yes, but there's something more important than that,'  
'what?'  
'The fact that they don't know about CHERUB concerns me, but way more importantly is the fact that they then won't know why Kent is here. They were just told to pick up everyone in that building and put them all in separate cars. The thing I'm worried about is what they might say to Kent, or what he might say to them.'_  
_


End file.
